The central panel is incised with lotus scroll with yellow tendrils and aubergine flowerheads on a green ground, between a band of lotus scroll on the shoulder and a band of lappets above the foot, both in underglaze blue.

ProvenanceChristie's London, 11 December 1987, lot 100.
The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Collection, San Antonio, Texas

Note: The design of this jar, with underglaze-blue bands above and below a wide band of overglaze enamels, is very rare. A very similar jar is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, accession no., 4396-1857, and is illustrated in R.L. Hobson, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, New York, 1915, vol. II, p. 160. The V&A example is nearly identical to the present jar in the decoration of its middle and lower bands, but differs in that its upper band is decorated with shaped panels of horses.

Christie'sImportant Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 25 September 2020